Basic Information

• Gender

  Male

• About me

  There is something compelling and memorable about a sepia tone photograph that is 80 years old. This is especially so if you are Southern. We now live in a digital snapshot world where many images are merely viewed, then quickly dismissed. This is not the case with vintage photographs. People take their time, musing, remembering and generating short stories, recalling sometimes, their own history, a moment passed. My drawings bring these experiences to the viewer on a much greater scale, with a different artistic medium as an aesthetic vehicle. The process begins with the image as a visual entity. “I have seen this before.” As I draw, the short story unfolds, fiction to real life experience. As the image progresses, it comes to life, the sensation of reality from a different time, a moment past. This experience is there for all of us to realize and share.These pieces are simple, straightforward drawing. Rendering is my skill, the foundation on which all this imagery is generated. I feel a responsibility, a certain noblesse oblige’ to the subject. Artisanship is a priority for me. The drawings are usually monochromatic with subtle hints of color as artistic license. They are time consuming, layer after layer of medium applied to gain depth and value, then finished with multiple polymer varnishes. As a story emerges with every page turned, my compositions develop, falling into space and dimension. Each drawing has its own integrity, will stand of its own credibility, but collectively, they represent a certain gestalt. Collectively, the pieces become a visual timeline, a cultural saga and narrative.I am a storyteller in two dimensions. These drawings are from our combined memories. My goal is to share with those who remember and instruct those too young to know of the value of this imagery.Purchase by work at http://www.etsy.com/shop/NewSouthBooks.

• Resume

  Michael Graham is a graduate of Memphis College of Art (1974 Merit Scholarship Award, BFA 1976), and worked as a professional artist and designer in Memphis until 1992. His work consisted primarily of commissioned drawings and the production of limited edition, hand-pulled serigraphs and intaglios. From graduation to 2004, Graham farmed in Tennessee and Texas, raising cotton, soybeans, corn and cattle. It was between the long straight rows, the pens and barbed wire, that the romantic tie between his work as a visual artist and the turning of the alluvial soil was formed.Born in Shreveport in 1950, Graham moved full circle in 2004 and is now teaching drawing and printmaking at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. He was awarded a one-man show at the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum (2005) and the state museums in Natchitoches and Baton Rouge (2008-2009). Graham has been the recipient of two grants from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, and two prestigious Louisiana Board of Regents grants. His work toured the Louisiana State Museum System (2008-2009) and has drawings in the permanent collection four state museums. Graham currently lives on his farm in rural Caddo Parish with his partner Contina, and their animals where he maintains his studio and fishes at every opportunity.Michael Graham was raised in the rural, agrarian South and feels a powerful bond to his native countryside. This life and the people who serpentine their way through it, have been the driving force in his imagery. Michael Graham is a storyteller in two dimensions